Putting students first

Cambridge Times

Whether you think Bill 115 was necessary or not, chaos in public schools prior to the Christmas break wasn’t a direct effect of legislation. Unions were directly responsible for telling their members to walk picket lines and not to partake in extra-curricular activities.

Now it appears that following the imposition of a two-year contract and a promise to repeal the bill, the unions are allowing teachers to choose whether or not they continue with actions wielded as part of the strike. Students and parents will now have the chance to see whether such action prior to the holidays was driven by unions, or teachers themselves.

Many teachers didn’t want to walk out on their students, let alone cancel sports and after-school activities, yet due to pressure from their unions, they were forced to comply. Meanwhile, members of the Liberal government remained steadfast in their approach to institute contracts, including a temporary wage freeze and reductions to sick-day benefits.

On Saturday, Liberal leadership candidate and Kathleen Wynne said that fractured relationships between teachers and government need to be repaired, but she separated herself from the situation, saying that Education Minister Laurel Broten “did what she believed she needed to do”.

It seems as though future Liberal leaders are looking to regain the confidence of teachers prior to the next election, lessons learned. Those should include never playing politics with education gain and perhaps taking a hard look at the role unions play in our public sector moving forward.